They’re Western Canadians by birth, but years ago Sara Quin headed east, to live in Montréal and New York, leaving the territory left of the Continental Divide to sister Tegan.

Still, twins are twins, and 3,000 miles can’t change the fact that Tegan and Sara’s similari with Tegan Quin, who divides her time between L. and Vancouver: even though her Canadian home base would allow her to marry her longtime girlfriend, the couple has chosen not to, as a matter of principle.

But it’s just a little more slick and it’s definitely not as much of a rock band record, that’s for sure.

When I brought that one in, I thought it would be scrapped. It was the first time in my life that I'd ever lived without Tegan. Another song that deals with relationship insecurities and feeling helpless is "Hang On to the Night." What inspired that? I'm in my mid thirties, and I'm starting to think about mortality a lot.

When he stripped back the demo, I realized it had a really strong arrangement and a strong melody, and the lyrics were great. I made friends and started a romantic relationship. We've lost a lot of people in the last few years.

I think there’s just a lot more options than when we first started and we were limited in terms of experience and ability, but also in terms of finances and money. We couldn’t necessarily translate our record live the way we can now.

Oftentimes in the studio, we were reluctant to layer all the harmonies or background vocals, because how would we ever perform them live? Just even something as simple as being able to sample a vocal and play it.

Their 2013 album, that after working with several producers and songwriters – including Jack Antonoff, Rob Cavallo and Mike Elizondo, among others – they realized they had invited too many cooks into the kitchen. Together, the Quins and Kurstin crafted strong, thoughtful, catchy songs like "Boyfriend," "100x" and "U-Turn," all of which explore various forms of relationships, from romantic ones to their own sibling dynamic. We really need someone who can dig through all of that and pick the strongest parts and elevate them. With this whole record, I was looking into who I am as a person.

He might ask us to play something in a different key or faster. Your first single is "Boyfriend." How did he help you with that one? It really started 12 or 13 years ago, when I moved up to Montreal. A lot of this album is thinking about that time: who I was, what it really meant to be on my own, the insecurity that came with it. Am I a freak of nature now because I'd just spent 17 years touring? The duo earned a Grammy nomination in 2013 for their DVD/Live Album "Get Along".forming a band called Plunk without a drummer or bass player.We even got a bit of scoop on Tegan and Sara’s seventh studio album, due in January. A.] and I live in Vancouver as well, since my girlfriend lives there.Tegan Quin was interviewed for, and is quoted in, the article "The Rainbow Connection: Gay and Lesbian Artists on Marriage and More," which is in our Protest Issue. This is the full transcript of that interview, mainly quotes that didn't make it into the print issue. So we kind of have to have two lives, because she needs to work there.Is that something that is very important to the both of you, or is it just the natural evolution of your sound as musicians? I think it absolutely is part of just a natural evolution, of a new vision, of constantly striving to do something new and different. If you talk about, this is what came out so many years ago, I think we have just grown and evolved as artists.